1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a luminescence measurement method and a luminescence measurement system for observing biological samples (for example, samples including cells). In particular, this invention relates to a method and a luminescence measurement system for performing the quantitative measurement of substances that may exist excessively in a biological sample.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, luciferase which is a luminescence enzyme or GFP which is a fluorescence enzyme has been employed in a biological function analysis. In particular, an assay utilizing the luminescence from a luciferin-luciferase reaction, etc. is widely employed as an experimental technique since the assay is advantageous, as compared with the method of employing fluorescence, in many respects such as (1) excellent S/N ratio; (2) excellent quantitative performance; (3) non-cytotoxicity in the employment of exciting light; etc.
For example, the luciferase assay is employed for quantitatively measure the quantity of ATP in a biological sample by measuring the intensity of luminescence which is steadily generated by luciferase or employed for observing the level of manifestation of a specified gene through the determination of luminescence intensity that can be performed by introducing luciferase gene, together with a reporter sequence, into cells.
On this occasion, as one example of the modification of the luciferase assay, there is employed a genetic engineering method of modifying the luciferase, i.e. luminescence enzyme itself, thereby providing the luciferase with heat resistance or high luminescence properties (see Bruce R. Branchini et al. Biochemistry, 2003, 42, pp. 10429-1046).